Brussels, 19/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - Member states and the European Commission said on Monday 19 March in Brussels that they were prepared to respond to Russia's demands over giving its consent for lifting the blockade on Polish meat and refraining from carrying out its threat to ban all EU food products. Nevertheless, some European agriculture ministers expressed concern at Russian brinkmanship, which created the impression that the EU was going to find it very difficult to find a way out of the vicious circle. The Commission's warning against the poor quality of inspections in some EU member states risks impacting on EU efforts to prove the harmlessness of its foodstuffs (EUROPE 9388).
Markos Kyprianou, the European commissioner for health and consumer protection informed the Agriculture Council about the slim results obtained from the meeting on 12-13 March between the Commission (which negotiated on behalf of EU member states) and the Russian authorities:
Russian embargo on Polish meat: Kyprianou indicated that Moscow had sent documents on shortcomings identified by Russian veterinarians during missions to Poland. The Commission has two weeks to respond to this criticism, which on the advice of the commissioner, does not justify the maintaining of the Russian embargo on Polish meat.
Threat of embargo against plant products: the Commission confirmed that Russia was threatening an embargo on Community plant products, due to differences of interpretation on authorised limits to pesticide residue in products. Kyprianou explained that Russia is basing its results on laboratory apparatus pesticide detection thresholds, whereas the EU uses a limit (often a higher one) in relation to the toxicity of substances to human health.
Threat of Russian blockade on European food products: Russia is demanding that the EU provide it with reports before 31 March on results on residue detection programmes for foodstuffs (meat, milk products etc). EU countries are obliged to provide the Commission with this information by this (31 March) date but are displaying some reluctance to provide data (problems identified and explanations) to the Russian authorities, which could use it for making new demands.
Mr Kyprianou welcomed the decision taken by Russia to remind its veterinarians (who have sometimes remained in certain member states for several weeks) to carry out controls there. Russian veterinarians, however, are expected to increase border inspections. The commissioner has called on EU member states to completely implement the agreement on veterinarian certificates to fill in when exporting to Russia. Latvia also underlined the importance for the EU to be alert in this area and avoid giving the Russians any reason to criticise European products.
During their lunch, European agriculture ministers discussed this sensitive issue in the context of negotiations with the Russians, as well as the criticism made by the Commission of 12 member states whose food quality inspections left a lot to be desired. The commissioner, however, did not make the names of the incriminated countries public, in an effort to avoid splits developing among member states which are already in difficulty over the Russian dossier. (lc)